Sunday, September 03, 2006

Berry Delicious

After a year long hunt for a good cheesecake, I am glad to be finally calling off the search.

Most cheesecakes on the market here are the refrigerator kind, not baked. They also rely on way too much gelatine for their tall and proud appearance. Like many things Argentine, they are impressive from afar but "ain't the real thing" upon closer examination. Not only do they all look a little too pale underneath a layer of glistening red and orange coloured jam, they taste like rubber and seem to me they could bounce off the plate anytime.

Of all those deeply disappointing experiences, I have to count the one from Dos Escudos the worst of all rip-offs. For a cake shop with a great reputation, demanding top-end prices, their cheesecake was a real shame.

At the end of our family asado this afternoon, my eyes almost popped when a baked cheesecake crowned with a small mountain of blueberries, blackberries, and a few fresh raspberries came into my line of sight. I was really excited, not only in seeing a baked cheesecake which looked like it could be quite decent tasting but all those fruits, real berries! For one brief moment I thought I wasn't in Buenos Aires, I mean, where was the dulce de leche?

When it was sliced, I could see the texture of a real cheesecake. I knew it would taste homemade. The most uplifting part for me was the layer of fruits was almost an inch deep; obviously no skimping on soft fruits which are expensive and rarely seen, in abundance, in this city.

It was the first piece of shop bought cake here which I finished, yet yearning for a smidgen more. The cake part was moist and the fruits were, surprisingly, not doused in sugar syrup but left quite tart to balance the richness of the cheese. The berries, saved a few fresh raspberries, were the frozen kind but they were all whole and still tasted of fruits of the forest.

We expat cheesecake seekers had been misled by the Time Out Guide of 2004 which lists only Dos Escudos, as a cake shop, in their services section. I do hope their updated guide has corrected this mistake. The impressive cake which could have stood up to competitions in "cheesecake countries" was from Como en Casa. They, of course, do all the typical Argentine cakes with ducle de leche or meringue.